A Quiet Day at Home

The temps have been in the lowers 80’s here & yours truly is most grateful.  I worked on trimming the pines that flank both sides of my driveway.  Gypsy Jane’s Holiday Rambler is a bit wider than her Escaper, it would be nice if it cleared the trees. 

Obviously I’m not quite done, there’s 2 branches on the left & 4 on the right that need trimming plus a final squaring up.  Since this is all high ladder work I cut until the height gets to me, go work on something else & then come back & trim a bit more latter.   Hobbits aren’t fond of heights.

Took a ride to a few of my favorite spots in the afternoon, this was a beaver pond, the beavers seem to have left.

The den is half gone & the water too.  In 2004 I spent the summer checking on this pond weekly – there was a pair of swans raising their cygnets.  Of the 8 cygnets I first saw the cob & pen managed to raise 6  fledglings & at least 4 were still around in September.

This little stream feeds the area.  It held several nice rainbow trout.

The South River is looking good coming out of Shenandoah National Park.  The great egret pair &  several blue heron pairs were nesting in their usual areas. 

Nearby these butterflies were feasting on horse poop.  To each his own. 

There’s a spot along the South River I like to visit, its my forest quiet place.  The hills are steep & covered in cedar, the river narrow & swift moving.  After I had visited my Urchin in Japan it always seemed that if I got to this spot at just the right time of an evening & crossed over the river then there would be a narrow asphalt path up that hill abit.   That path would soon have little stone guardian figures in faded red capes, small stone shrines & signs in kanji.  If I followed that path it would take me to Minobu & then the road to my daughter in Nambu. 

Sunday evening saw a very nice lighting bug rising.  The solitary fireflies that flash 3 short horizontal blinks have now been joined by their cousins who flash a rising “J” pattern.  They were right on time, they appear June 4-6 in my yard most every year.

These are my throwing knives for rendezvous with their new leather handles I cut out from a vegetable tanned belt blank. The knives themselves are “Otters”, designed and sold by a buckskinner trader. They come in 2 sizes, I own the smaller size. These handles are slightly thicker than the original handles and completely cover the tang. (The original handles left about a quarter inch of tang exposed.)   I’ve altered my knife grip & now get a solid stick in 9 of 10 throws with almost half my throws hitting there I’m aiming.

The Goddess of Yard Sales also gifted me with a Western Digital My Book Essential 250GB external hard drive with USB cable & power supply.  Cost $2.00.  I’ve reformatted it & loaded  iTunes on it.  I really need to spent some time getting my computer files better organized, maybe the next to-hot-to-do-yard-work day.  I also got 2 nice white plastic chairs for yard sitting & lightening bug watching from a “For Free” pile of stuff.